Saturday, December 14, 2013

Ch-Ch-ch-changes part 2

So deciding to do the MBA was just step 1 in a pretty scary process of applying for it. Bear in mind that when you've spent the best part of a year being called an idiot, it's rather hard to sell yourself as amazing to a course I don't meet the entry requirements for (I don't have the experience, but the PhD for once actually counts in my favour). There are application forms, an essay (a 300 word essay. That took more time to cut down to the word count than to write), photographs, references (costing a lot in humility and chocolate) and the dreaded Entrance Exam. The application form asks about everything from academic performance. work experience, life in general, your hobbies (please account for any time not allocated to a hobby between high school and the present), leadership experience, haircolour, DNA sample...

The entrance exam, besides costing a fair chunk of money to write, is one of the most secret things I've ever had to deal with. I was told I didn't need to prepare, and I did the natural research and came up empty. I decided to study instead for the alternative test - the GMAT just in case. One test exam in I had hit an amazing 22% and panicked, managing to get a days study leave to actually write it and studying before work in the morning, after work in the evening (I re-learned long division!) even mid-conversation with the ever long-suffering P1.

The strange thing is, as stressful as it was, for the first time in ages I enjoyed myself. I felt parts of my brain wake up and start stretching and I was improving the whole time. But just as I was getting to feel slightly better about the situation, I was told to work the weekend before the exam, as well as an late evening meeting. I went to the boss and asked if I could have a day study leave in exchange for all the overtime and was told that it wasn't possible as I was a)too stupid, b)too slow, c) too careless etc etc as I had had to do half of Bridezilla's work and was not able to dot every i in time as I had 10 000 pages to write in 5 days.

I realised I was making the right decision,  and made sure that my application was for full-time

1 comments:

po said...

Gosh Helen, good luck. I don't really even know what on earth an MBA is and what people do with it, but I am thoroughly disillusioned with the world of Science too and am always searching for alternatives, and I do not even have a harsh job situation like yours.